Developer builds 'family camp' for the silk-stocking set

1of 10Houston Oaks is a 900-acre "Family Sports Retreat" near Hockley, about a 40-minute drive northwest of downtown Houston. The main activities include fishing, skeet shooting, tennis and golf.
﻿Photo: Steve Gonzales

2of 10Houston Oaks is a 900-acre "Family Sports Retreat" near Hockley, about a 40-minute drive northwest of downtown Houston. The main activities include fishing, skeet shooting, tennis and golf.
﻿Photo: Steve Gonzales

3of 10A wooded dock from the fishing shack is popular for family and children at Houston Oaks Family Sports Retreat, a high-end real estate development Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, in Hockley. ( Steve Gonzales / Houston Chronicle )Photo: Steve Gonzales

4of 10Interior view of the one of the buildings in the Houston Oaks Family Sports Retreat, a high-end real estate development Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, in Hockley. ( Steve Gonzales / Houston Chronicle )Photo: Steve Gonzales

Steve Alvis grew up roping cattle and raising horses north of Houston. As a young father, he would take his own two boys to a family camp in Tyler, where they'd go on trail rides, target shoot with BB guns and roast marshmallows around a bonfire after sundown.

His kids are grown now, but Alvis - a local real estate developer who made a mint building suburban shopping centers - is creating his own version of family camp, one in which the annual fee to join is more than most people make in a year and the membership boasts boldface names of the ultra-wealthy.

Houston Oaks is a 900-acre "Family Sports Retreat" that Alvis and his partners are developing on the back roads of Hockley, about a 40-minute drive northwest of downtown.

The owners have spent tens of millions of dollars creating a playground for the wealthiest Houston families, many of whom have other club memberships and vacation homes around the world.

The property's centerpiece is a clubhouse with a spa, fitness center and farm-to-table restaurant. On the second floor, restricted to those with a $100,000 annual "Legacy" membership, there's a private bar with cigar storage and a boardroom clad in wine lockers for the members. Balconies and terraces have antique fireplaces that Alvis' wife, Marci, imported from France and Belgium.

Marci Alvis is responsible for much of the interior design of the clubhouse as well as other buildings on the property. There's a boutique hotel, four cottages, six villas and a lodge with four master suites. A 15th-century French chapel was moved and rebuilt on the property.

The buildings are filled with old beams and reclaimed lumber dismantled from Midwestern barns that the owners have purchased over the years.

The main activities include fishing, skeet shooting, tennis and golf. There are also two swimming pools, a man-made beach and an air-conditioned tree house built into one of the sprawling oaks.

The property, north of U.S. 290 off Hegar Road, is not yet completed.

A half-dozen tennis courts are under construction and an existing golf course has been redesigned by former Jack Nicklaus designer Chet Williams. It was stripped last year and will reopen this fall.

Tenneco originally developed the property in the mid-1950s and operated it for decades as a golf retreat for its executives. The land traded hands more than once, and the new owners purchased it out of foreclosure in 2007. They've added to their land holdings there over the years.

Alvis' partners are Chuck Watson, former chairman and CEO of Dynegy, and John Havens, owner of Cal-a-Vie Health Spa north of San Diego and president of Houston-based seismic data firm SEI. Their wives are involved, too.

Alvis said they've done virtually no marketing for the project.

"Most of the members are our friends," he said on a recent morning at the property. There are 378 members.

There will also be about 40 single-family homes, many of which have been built or are under construction.

Alvis said he wants the membership to grow, but Houston Oaks is more of a passion project than a moneymaking endeavor. The owners have affiliated the facility with The First Tee, a youth organization that provides opportunities for children of diverse backgrounds to learn golf.

The partners want the property ultimately to become self-sustaining so they can pass it on to their children.

"We know there's no return on this," Alvis said. "This is about passion."

Nancy Sarnoff covers commercial and residential real estate for the Houston Chronicle and the paper’s two websites: Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com. She also hosts Looped In, a weekly real estate podcast about the city’s most compelling people and places. Nancy is a native of Chicago but has spent most of her life in Texas.